Oct. 4, 2004
Notre Dame, Ind. – The Notre Dame women’s golf team found itself among the top-25 of the first golfstat.com rankings for the 2004 season released on Sunday, Oct. 3. The Irish enter the poll at No. 18 thanks to a solid beginning that includes one victory and a third place finish against a tough schedule. Duke University is atop the rankings followed by Washington and Arizona State.
Notre Dame, who is currently playing in the Shoot-Out at the Legends Tournament in Franklin, Ind., collected a big win at the Jeannine McHaney Invitational/Central Regional Preview Sept. 24-26 in Lubbock, Texas. The Irish defeated a solid field that included four fellow ranked teams. One of those squads was Missouri, the seventh ranked team in the poll. Oklahoma (14), SMU (19), and Arkansas (20) were the other ranked programs in the field.
Irish junior co-captain Katie Brophy (Spokane, Wash./Gonzaga Prep) won the Central Regional Preview individual title by carding a 36-hole total of 141 (69-72). She now has a school-record three career tournament victories. Noriko Nakazaki (Hanover Park, Ill./Hoffman Estates), a sophomore, placed in a four-way tie for 10th as she shot a 149 (75-74).
The Irish opened the season with a third-place showing at the Notre Dame Invitational on Sept. 4-5. Despite shooting the program’s best score in the five-year history of the tournament the squad could not overcome hot play from Iowa State and Washington State. Notre Dame redeemed the loss to Iowa State by finishing 28 strokes ahead of the Cyclones at the McHaney Invitational.
Head coach Debby King and the Irish found themselves in another tough test as they entered the second tournament of the season in Ann Arbor, Mich. The Lady Northern Invitational served as a preview to what ought to be a highly competitive Big Ten Conference Championship, which will take place this coming spring. Every conference school was there and Notre Dame was one of four non-Big Ten schools invited to participate. The Irish squared off against five other teams that appear in the golfstat.com rankings. Michigan, who is ranked 11th, took home the title over runner-up Ohio State, the ninth-ranked team, and third-place Missouri. The 13th-ranked Purdue Boilermakers and the Oklahoma Sooners also finished ahead of the Irish, who placed in a tie for eighth along with Northwestern.
Golfstat.com Women’s Top-25 Division I Rankings – Oct. 3, 2004: 1. Duke, 2. Washington, 3. Arizona State, 4. Auburn, 5. Georgia, 6. UCLA, 7. Missouri, 8. Oklahoma State, 9. Ohio State, 10. New Mexico, 11. Michigan, 12. Pepperdine, 13. Purdue, 14. Oklahoma, 15. Texas, 16. LSU, 17. Tennessee, 18. Notre Dame, 19. SMU, 20. Arkansas, 21. Tulane, 22. Stanford, 23. California, 24. BYU, 25. Furman.
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